Jim Morrison, second from left, and his bandmates are the subject of “When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors.” The special, which is part of PBS’s “American Masters” series, takes viewers through the trippy life and times of the legendary 1960s rock band.

They say, if you can remember the ’60s, you weren’t really there. To jog your memory of one hallmark of the era in particular, a feature-length documentary on The Doors has its TV debut this week.

Strange and mind-expanding — somewhere between jazz and rock, poetry and nightmare — this band was the most mesmerizing and sometimes scariest American group to give the counterculture voice. Now, some 40 years later, on a TV showcase more often devoted to Broadway icons or fine artists, The Doors get their due.

Bringing a sense of the trippiness of the band to the usually staid confines of PBS, “American Masters” presents a feature that will take you back. Without the physiological disadvantages.

The funhouse images of the music, the surreal poetry and the ongoing effects of drugs and alcohol are both documented and dramatized in “When You’re Strange: A Film About The Doors,” airing at 9 p.m. Wednesday at on KRMA- Channel 6.

Morrison, of course, was the pretty-boy vocalist whose onstage antics were a calling card for the group, until his overindulgence became his downfall. “Jimbo,” his dark alter ego, took over, to the chagrin of drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger and keyboardist Ray Manzarek.

“Mr. Mojo Risin” (an anagram of Morrison’s name) believed that you can’t burn out if you’re not on fire. And so the film repeatedly employs the visual metaphor of a lit match, bright until extinguished. As narrated by Johnny Depp, the film dangles a tease: raising the question of whether Morrison’s death in Paris at age 27 was perhaps faked, noting there have been reported “sightings.”

Dick Wolf, who has given us umpteen hours of the “Law & Order” franchise, is the producer with Peter Jankowski through Wolf Films. Directed by Tom DiCillo (“Living in Oblivion”), the film draws on unreleased footage from 1965-71 and interviews with Morrison’s sister and parents.

The tone doesn’t glamorize the acid trips and blind drunkenness that fueled the Morrison mystique. His bandmates repeatedly worried and warned Morrison away from his self-destructive behavior, Depp’s narration notes.

Fort Carson exposed

Next week, PBS’s “Frontline” focuses on the Army base near Colorado Springs for its season finale, “The Wounded Platoon,” investigating a string of violent crimes committed by members of a Fort Carson platoon after returning from Iraq.

This is a different take on the story that The New York Times recently featured, about soldiers feeling “warehoused” in a program intended to help those suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. “Frontline” looks at “the invisible scars of war” and documents the instances of violence and memories haunting the platoon since its return.

“Since the start of the Iraq war, this city has experienced an unprecedented murder spree. In the last five years, 14 Fort Carson soldiers have been charged or convicted in 13 murders and manslaughters. On Friday nights, downtown is full of soldiers from Fort Carson, some trying to forget what they’ve experienced, others celebrating their homecoming. . . . Since 2002 the number of Fort Carson soldiers diagnosed each year with PTSD has risen from 26 to 2,210.”

The transition units have seen a rash of suicides and cases of depression, alcohol abuse and overmedication. At least four soldiers in Fort Carson’s special unit have committed suicide since 2007. The “epidemic of psychological problems” caught the military by surprise. The Army’s stigma against asking for help was a problem, acknowledges David Clark, commander of the 3rd Platoon’s battalion.